I am trying to keep most of the corn from being eaten by those hogs. Once the feeder starts throwing, the hogs comes running and gobbles most of the feed by the time the deer comes around. So I bought some 3 foot hogs panels to see if it will keep them at bay. I put the feeder on the edge of the pen so the hogs will get some corn on the outside of the pen while the deer would get the majority of the corn on the inside. I also included a protein gravity feeder in there.

Has anyone had less sightings of deer inside / around the pens than without the pens? Do the deer feel trapped by that pen method? Just a thought. I also set up a game camera out there.

Deer will not be affected by the pens. In a week or two they'll use it just as frequently as before. Probably more now that they don't have to compete with hogs.

I would have made the pen bigger with there being two feeders in it so the deer are more comfortable jumping in but that's just me

I wanted to go bigger, but its hard work and the ground with sand is hard to drive the stakes in plus too much thick brush around. I could put just the corn feeder in the middle and relocate the gravity feeder elsewhere with a pen for it.

My experience is deer do not like being around hogs. A feeder on my place without a pen, will guarantee hogs and few deer at those feeders. The penned feeders have very few hog sightings. I don't want hogs screwing up my deer hunting, so I pen the feeders and don't let the corn reach the outside of the pen. As mentioned, a larger pen is more comfortable for the deer. More will get in a larger pen.

On a side note, I learned to keep corn from being thrown outside the pen years ago to keep sheep and goats from stampeding to the feeder on a lease I was on. Cattle can behave the same way, and they can be very destructive to your pen if they get a taste of corn. If you have livestock, by all means keep the corn inside the pen. If you want to see more deer, I'd also keep the corn inside the pen to eliminate the hogs. If you want to hunt hogs, use a different location with no pen, or hunt them in the off season.

Another conundrum is the hog panels do not keep 100% of the hogs out. My neighbor and I have what we call "jumpers". We have had a few hogs that are agile enough to jump the 34" hog panel. I ended up adding two strands of barbed wire around the top to deter the "jumpers". So far, so good, but makes stepping over the pen a little more risky.

We had hog problems as well. We penned some of our feeders and not the rest. It was plain to see last season the deer were using the penned feeders with no hogs more than the opened ones.

I have two feeders that are about 150 yards apart. One has a pen and one does not. The penned one probably gets 3-4 times the deer activity as the unpenned feeder. It's mainly used by hogs and turkey. And cows.... damn cows... My pen is made of 8 16ft hog panels and I've counted as many as 13 deer in there at one time.

Some dont even have to be jumpers. I used cattle panel for my pens and any pig that is about 17-18 pounds or less was squeezing through the sqaures that were on the 3rd row and up. Obviously the bottom to are the hog type size panel. I had to take chicken fencing roles and wrap the bottom of my pens all the way around and wire that to the outside of the pen to keep them out. figured it was only a matter of time before mama who on cams is constantly standing outside looking in was going to get irritated and tried to push her way in and ruin my pens. I kept getting pics of the little ones inside my pens and made several attempts to find the week spot in my pens only to have a piglet jar the t-post and turn the camera to where they are going through the paneling.

Take a full sized cattle panel and cut it in half lengthwise. That will be tall enough to keep most if not all pigs out and you might get by with making it a little smaller in diameter because the deer will only need to step over the sides instead of jump in.

I agree with others on here. Deer will get used to pen and will frequent it more without the hogs. I would not have my corn throw outside the pen. From you pic it looks like you could expand your pen towards where you standing to take pic. It may no longer be round but you could make it oblong and put corn feeder in middle and still leave protein feeder closer to one end. If corn is being thrown to outside of pen, hogs will still come running and root/jump/climb into pen. Hope you don't have cattle if corn going outside pen. They will eventually push their way in. Good luck, you're on the right track.

My pen is 45 x 45 with a corn and protein feeder. I get a few pics of deer with hogs outside, but I don't think the deer would be willing to eat across the fence from a pig I put mine up in March of last year and the deer were eating the second night

Too small a pen can wind up creating a jail cell effect. And no one likes to go to jail, especially not claustrophobic monster bucks. Couple years ago we wound up taking all of our pens down to get more deer to come, and it worked. course we don't have hogs. I like the huge pens I see sometimes. Deer won't feel boxed in in those.